Resolute Kenyans on Twitter force apology, once again

By Allan Olingo

Kenyans on Twitter can go to great lengths to push a cause they believe in. They have raised money for the hungry, helped the sick in hospitals, donated blood or defended the pride of their country through Tweets.

When Kenyans on social media woke up on Monday morning, there was a notice on Korean Air’s website announcing the start of non-stop flights from Korea to Kenya.

The announcement read: “Korean Air will launch three non-stop flights per week from Incheon, Korea, to Nairobi, Kenya, on June 21. Korean Air will become the first air carrier in Northeast Asia to extend flight services to Nairobi. Fly to Nairobi and enjoy the grand African Savanna, the safari tour and the indigenous people full of primitive energy.”

Within hours, the advert was pulled down after it sparked a flurry of angry Tweets and Facebook postings over the description of Kenyans as ‘indigenous people full of primitive energy’.

This description enraged Kenyans on Twitter (Kot). But as it is normally the case, some threw in some humorous bits about everything Korean and Kenyan.

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Angry @roberalai, one of the first people to post the advert online, tweeted: “Sad that Korean Air thinks that our ‘primitiveness’ is a tourist attraction.”

“An insult to a nation. Kenya doesn’t have primitive people. They should apologise,” posted a Twitter user who identified himself as Kevin Kimani.

Caleoustous Juma tweeted: “Offensive #KoreanAir ad has been removed from website, thanks to Twitter energy.”

@muterundumo wrote: “Kenya’s online military. #Kot is the new line of defence against insulting foreign incursions! Hongera.”

This Twitter uproar even created a trending topic #primitive energy. @tmsruge tweeted: “This week, I am going to be powered by nothing but #primitiveenergy. Watch me rumble all over this joint!”

@sickolia tweeted: “But running a 42km marathon and winning without even breaking a sweat is indeed #primitiveenergy.”

Another posting by @buggz79 read: “Want a train to switch tracks? No problem! Our indigenous people uproot the railway and chart a new course.”

Interestingly there are those who said that this ‘gaffe’ was intentional as it managed to achieve its intended message — that Korea air will be flying to Nairobi starting Thursday.

The Korea Air, through its Twitter handle @koreaair_ke apologised for the gaffe, pulled down the advert from its website and blocked it from You Tube.

The apology read:  “Regarding our recent promotional notice of Nairobi, we are checking on this issue accordingly. We sincerely apologise for this situation. The recent feedback of our notice of Nairobi has been removed from our website, we will resume the page after revising the phrase.”

This is not the first time Kenyans have taken Twitter to get apologies from gaffes about the country or stories to do with happenings affecting Kenya.

Recently, CNN’s Nairobi correspondent David McKenzie had to apologise to Kenyans on Twitter after running a grenade explosion’ story with the banner “Violence in Kenya” and using the post election violence images.

McKenzie wrote: “We are having the offending video pulled. Again, apologies to all for the mistake.”

The Kenya Defence Military spokesman Colonel Cyrus Oguna was also forced to apologise after tweeting a 2009 picture of a man being beheaded by the Al-shaabab militants and claiming it was a recent image of an informant. He had to swallow humble pie after the picture was shown to have been pulled from UK’s Daily Mail.